Several Retail Outlets Owned By Conglomerate Mochtar Riady And Kuncoro Wibowo 'Fall' In 2021, What About This Year?

Matahari Department Store outlet, (Photo: Doc. Matahari Dept. Store)

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 pandemic period is indeed not a friendly moment for the retail industry in the country. Some players in the industry have to be willing to have their business eroded due to the prolonged pandemic.

Call it Matahari, Giant, to Ace Hardware, which had to close several outlets. Even Giant had to 'scorch' all its outlets in Indonesia.

VOI, Monday 3 January, summarized the closing of these 'top' brand outlets and the reasons:

Matahari closed 13 outlets because it was quiet

Matahari Department Store will close its 13 outlets in 2021. The closure was carried out because the mall was deserted due to government policies regarding activity restrictions to stem the spread of COVID-19.

The plan to close 13 outlets this year illustrates the declining financial performance of the retail company owned by Lippo conglomerate boss Mochtar Riady. In the first quarter of 2021, PT Matahari Department Store Tbk (LPPF) recorded gross sales of Rp2.1 trillion, down 23.6 percent compared to 2020 and 37.4 percent lower than the same period in 2019.

In the first quarter of 2021, the company managed to pocket a net income of Rp1.2 trillion. Unfortunately, this figure also fell by 25 percent compared to 2020 revenue and decreased 39.7 percent compared to 2019.

ACE Hardware closes outlets in Blok M and Pluit

The Ace Hardware outlet at Pasaraya Blok M, South Jakarta is closed after 25 years of operation. The closing was carried out on December 31, 2021.

Previously, another Ace Hardware outlet in Emporium Pluit, North Jakarta was first closed on December 8, 2021. This was also done because the rental period for the outlet had expired.

In the financial report of the company owned by the conglomerate Kuncoro Wibowo, Ace Hardware posted a net profit of Rp322.85 billion, down nearly 40 percent in the third quarter of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020 which recorded a net profit of Rp529.58 billion.

The decrease in net profit was the impact of the company's decline in net sales during the first 9 months of this year by 9.41 percent from the previous Rp5.48 trillion to only Rp4.69 trillion.

Giant closed all outlets

Giant closed all of its outlets on August 1, 2021. This supermarket under PT Hero Supermarket Tbk (HERO) is closed due to increasingly fierce competition in the food business in recent times and the prolonged pandemic conditions.

Director of PT Hero Supermarket Tbk Hadrianus Wahyu Trikusumo said the step of closing the outlets was carried out as a business transformation process in the form of rearranging stores to meet growing customer preferences. This is to ensure that Hero Group can compete effectively in the food retail business in Indonesia.

The closing of stores led to an increase in other debt which soared to 59 percent. Other payables increased by Rp181 billion or 59 percent due to building and maintenance costs related to store closures.

In the first semester of 2021 HERO reported a loss that swelled 2.5 times from the same period 2020. Quoted from the disclosure of information, PT Hero Supermarket Tbk reported a net loss in the first semester of 2021 of Rp551 billion (unaudited). This figure swelled from the same period last year which recorded a net loss of Rp202 billion.